8.  The applicant was born in 1958 and lives in Domaniόw, Poland.
9.  On 23 May 1994 the Wrocław Regional Prosecutor (Prokurator Wojewódzki) charged the applicant with drug smuggling and detained him on remand in view of the reasonable suspicion that he had committed the offence in question, the serious nature of that offence and the risk that he might obstruct the proper conduct of the proceedings. On the same day, the applicant’s wife was charged with a similar offence and detained on remand. The prosecutor had ordered them to surrender their passports.
10.  Subsequently, on several occasions, the applicant asked the prosecutor to release him on bail, but all his applications were to no avail.
11.  On 3 August 1994, on an application by the Regional Prosecutor, the Wrocław Regional Court (Sąd Wojewódzki) prolonged the applicant’s detention on remand until 31 December 1994. The court held that there was a reasonable suspicion that the applicant had committed the serious offence with which he had been charged. It considered that the need to confront suspects with each other, to obtain evidence from abroad and expert evidence justified the prolongation of his detention in order to ensure the proper course of the investigation. That decision was upheld by the Wrocław Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny) on 25 August 1994.
12.  On 15 December 1994 the applicant’s wife was released from detention on health grounds.
13.  On 22 December 1994, on a subsequent application by the Regional Prosecutor, the Wrocław Regional Court prolonged the applicant’s detention until 28 February 1995, repeating the reasons already invoked in the decision of 3 August 1994. The Wrocław Court of Appeal upheld that decision and the grounds therefor on 19 January 1995.
14.  On 3 January 1995 the applicant’s counsel informed the prosecutor that his client’s health was very bad and that, in particular, he had lost consciousness during one of their meetings in prison. He asked the prosecutor to release the applicant immediately. 
The prosecution first asked the prison authorities to provide them with an updated report on the applicant’s health. However, prison doctors did not consider that the applicant’s condition militated against keeping him in custody.
15.  Meanwhile, on 22 December 1994, the applicant had filed an application for release on bail with the Wrocław Regional Prosecutor and offered a security in the form of his movable and immovable property. The application was dismissed by the Wrocław Regional Prosecutor on 22 December 1994 and, on appeal, by the Wrocław Prosecutor of Appeal (Prokurator Apelacyjny) on 5 January 1995. In those decisions the prosecutors referred to the need to ensure the proper conduct of the proceedings and considered that the applicant’s detention should continue until at least the end of the investigation, especially as the applicant had not confessed.
16.  On 28 February 1995 the prosecution lodged a bill of indictment with the Wrocław Regional Court. The applicant was indicted on a charge of having smuggled not less than 30 kg of heroin. The bill of indictment comprised 21 charges against 15 co-accused.
17.  In March 1995 the applicant made 3 applications for release on health grounds. He complained about frequent headaches and states of unconsciousness, insomnia and heart-burning sensation. He also referred to his difficult family situation and, in particular, to the bad health of his wife, who was suffering from depressive neurosis and chronic gastritis. He produced the relevant medical certificates.
18.  On 21 March 1995 the Regional Court refused his applications. It considered that there was a sufficient likelihood that the applicant had committed the offence with which he had been charged. It also held that his detention should continue in view of the need to ensure the proper conduct of the trial. The court did not find that the situation of the applicant’s family was so serious as to justify his release on the grounds specified in Article 218 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
19.  On 22 May 1995 the applicant again asked for release. In August 1995 he made several similar applications. He stressed that he had already spent nearly one year in detention. He referred to his own and his wife’s bad health, maintaining that she urgently needed help and support from him. He produced several medical and other certificates relating to her health and family situation.
20.  On 22 August 1995 the court rejected all the applications. It held that there was a sufficient appearance of likelihood that he had committed the offence in question. It further considered that that offence represented a serious danger to society and that, in view of that fact, there was a need to ensure the proper course of the trial. Referring to the applicant’s health, the court observed that the applicant was suffering only from neurosis, which was not in itself an obstacle to his continued detention. As regards his family situation, the court pointed out that other members of their family could provide his wife with the necessary care and assistance.
21.  The Wrocław Court of Appeal upheld that decision on 26 September 1995. It found that the charge against the applicant was sufficiently confirmed by evidence heard before the trial court. It also considered that, given the character of the offence, the complicated process of obtaining evidence and the stage of the proceedings, holding the applicant in custody was necessary to secure the proper conduct of the trial.
22.  In the meantime, on 4 August 1995, the Regional Court had rejected the applicant’s other applications for release, which he had filed on 3 July and 1 August 1995. This decision was upheld on appeal on 31 August 1995. The courts relied on two principal reasons, namely, on the reasonable suspicion that the applicant had committed the serious offence and the need to ensure the proper conduct of the proceedings. As regards the applicant’s health and his family situation, the courts found that there were no grounds for releasing him under Article 218 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
23.  On 13 October 1995 the trial began. The court heard evidence from defendants. Further hearings were held on 1 December 1995 and 19 and 25 January 1996. The applicant repeatedly – but with no success – asked for release.
24.  On 25 January 1996 the applicant asked the Regional Court to release him on bail. The court refused on the same day. On 23 February 1996 the decision was upheld on appeal. The courts held that the charge against the applicant had a sufficient basis in evidence that had so far been heard before the trial court. They considered that the applicant’s offence represented a serious danger to society and that the nature of the offence, as well as the modus operandi, justified the fears that the applicant would obstruct the process of obtaining evidence. As regards the applicant’s family situation, the courts observed that his wife was under the proper care in a psychiatric hospital and that her condition was not a reason to apply Article 218 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
25.  On 31 January 1996 the applicant again asked for release on bail. He submitted that the health of his wife had markedly deteriorated and that she was in hospital. On 15 February 1996 the Wrocław Regional Court rejected the application in view of the reasonable suspicion that the applicant had committed the serious offence with which he had been charged and the need to secure the proper conduct of the proceedings. The court found that the bad health of the applicant’s wife was not a circumstance that could militate against his continued detention because she was being given care and treatment in hospital.
26.  The trial continued on 5 and 7 March and 10, 13 and 31 May, 26 June and 9 July 1996.
27.  In the interim, on 20 March 1996, the applicant had filed another application for release. He repeated his previous arguments and produced further documents describing the bad health and difficult personal situation of his wife. He stressed that the total length of his detention was very considerable.
28.  The Wrocław Regional Court rejected the application on 9 July 1996.
29.  On 29 July 1996, on the applicant’s appeal, the Wrocław Court of Appeal quashed the detention order and released him under the condition that he report weekly to the police station at his place of residence and surrender his passport to the court. In addition, the court imposed further restrictions on the applicant’s movement and ordered, inter alia, that he be prohibited from leaving the territory of Poland. The Court of Appeal did not share the applicant’s opinion that he should be released in view of his family situation and held that detention was by itself a measure that inevitably entailed serious consequences for an individual’s family life. It considered, however, that the length of the applicant’s detention, which had at the time exceeded two years, militated in favour of his release. The court stressed that that element, given the fact that the trial had reached an advanced stage, that evidence had been secured and that there was no danger that the applicant might obstruct the process of obtaining evidence, justified the opinion that the application of a less severe preventive measure would adequately secure the further course of the trial.
30.  The trial ended on 23 May 1997. At the final hearing the Regional Prosecutor dropped the charge of drug smuggling against the applicant and asked the court to find him guilty of supplying drugs on the market (“wprowadzenie do obrotu środków odurzających”). The Regional Court convicted the applicant of that offence and sentenced him to 3 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 Polish zlotys. The time spent by the applicant in detention pending trial was deducted from the sentence of imprisonment. The applicant did not appeal against his conviction.
31.  In their observations on admissibility and the merits, the Government submitted that, on 15 May 1995 the Wrocław Regional Police had obtained information from the Warsaw Office of Interpol, according to which the Italian authorities had issued an order to search for the applicant by a “wanted” notice in connection with the suspicion of his having been involved in money laundering and with their intended request for his extradition to Italy.
32.  The applicant maintained that throughout his trial he had been unaware of that fact and that he had learnt of it – and of the fact that he had already been sentenced in absentia by the Italian courts – on 15 December 2001, when he had been arrested by the German authorities. He produced the relevant warrant of arrest.
33.  In that connection, the applicant also submitted that the German courts had refused to extradite him to Italy because the Italian courts had not ensured him a fair trial in absentia. To begin with, he had not been informed of the charges. Nor had he been heard, summoned to stand trial or notified of the judgment. He produced the relevant decision given by the Dresden High Country Court on 19 February 2002. The court considered that his extradition to Italy was inadmissible because “in the trial preceding his conviction a minimum of his defence rights had not been respected”.